In Milan, a forest will soon be planted in the sky. Building works for a pair of skyscrapers that will become home to the world’s first vertical forest is underway. The brainchild of architect Stefano Boeri, the €65 million ‘Bosco Verticale’ is already under construction. When complete, the skyscrapers will contain luxury apartments, each one equipped with a copious balcony specially designed to hold around 900 small trees and other plants. If planted on the ground the total vegetation would cover an area of 10,000 square metres.
As well as providing green outdoors space for residents, and providing the city with some much needed green views, the project should have a range of other benefits, including:
filtering pollution
absorbing CO2 and dust particles
reducing noise pollution to the building
improving the microclimate
saving energy by sheltering the building from solar radiation in summer
reducing rainwater run-off so curbing flooding.
And all this, claims Boeri, for a premium of just 5% on the cost of normal high rises.
On the surface, it is a simple idea – with growing populations requiring land use for lodgings, why not plant our greenery upwards, rather than outwards? It is certainly becoming increasingly popular, with schemes in Chicago and Suwon, South Korea
Alexander Felson, Director of the Urban Ecology and Design Laboratory at Yale University, agrees that “there will potentially be microclimate and air particulate removal benefits”, but warns that the “overall energy required to construct a building that would support both trees and the wet weight of soil” places some serious question marks over its overall sustainability. He favours a more modest approach focusing on green roofs.
Thousands of dead fish Common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Public domain image from USFWS National Image Library. Created by Duane Rave
Thousands of Fish Die in Midwest Heat
As the Midwestern United States suffers from the worst drought combined with searing temperatures in 50 years, thousands of dead fish are turning up in lakes and rivers as water temperatures rise to almost 100 degrees, reports ABC News.
“It’s something I’ve never seen in my career, and I’ve been here for more than 17 years,” said Mark Flammang, a fisheries biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “I think what we’re mainly dealing with here are the extremely low flows and this unparalleled heat.”
One of the worst cases of fish killed occured in Iowa when water temperatures reached 97 degrees, hot enough to kill more than 40,000 shovelnose sturgeon.
State officials commented that they have never seen such a massive die off of sea creatures in the last 20 years.
The massive die-off has caused a loss of $10 million to the state since the sturgeon are a prime source of caviar produced from their eggs.
Thousands of bass and catfish have likewise turned up dead in rivers in Illinois, with several endangered species threatened with extinction, including the greater redhorse fish in Illinois and the pallid sturgeon in Nebraska.
Flammang said since July, more than 3,000 existing heat records have been broken throughout the Midwest and forecasters can’t predict when the devastating heat and drought will end.
“Those fish have been in these rivers for thousands of thousands of years, and they’re accustomed to all sorts of weather conditions,” he said. “But sometimes, you have conditions occur that are outside their realm of tolerance.”
The following facts compiled by the AP give a good picture of just how bad things are:
• Iowa DNR officials said the sturgeon found dead in the Des Moines River were worth nearly $10 million, a high value based in part on their highly sought eggs, which are used for caviar.
• The federal U.S. Drought Monitor shows nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states are experiencing some form of drought.
• The Department of Agriculture has declared more than half of the nation’s counties — nearly 1,600 in 32 states — as natural disaster areas.
• More than 3,000 heat records were broken over the last month.
Obama says Midwest drought historic, seeks aid for region
Margaret Chadbourn, Reuters
The worst drought in half a century is slashing U.S. crop and livestock production, President Obama said on Tuesday as he called on Congress to pass a farm bill that will send disaster aid to more farmers and ranchers.
During a meeting of Obama’s rural council at the White House, he said the administration will do all it can to alleviate the impact of the drought.
“It is a historic drought and it is having a profound impact on farmers and ranchers all across many states,” Obama said.
More than 60 percent of the continental United States, including prime farm and ranch territory, is suffering moderate to exceptional drought. Analysts expect the drought will bring the smallest corn crop in six years. The government will make its first estimate of the fall harvest on Friday.
With the U.S. election three months away, Obama said Congress needed to complete work on a new five-year farm bill. Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives, unable to pass a bill in the lower chamber, proposed a $383 million disaster package for livestock producers before adjourning for the summer.
The president said he hoped lawmakers get an earful from their constituents during the five-week recess away from Washington and that they reconvene on September 10 prepared to complete work on a farm bill “immediately.”
Food stamps for the poor would see their biggest cut, $16 billion, since the 1990s in the House farm bill. Democrats oppose those cuts and fiscal hawks among Republicans say the bill, which raises crop support prices, needs more cuts throughout. The Senate bill would cut food stamps by $4 billion.
“Congress needs to pass a farm bill that will not only provide important disaster relief tools but also make necessary reforms and give farmers the certainty they deserve,” said Obama in his first remarks on the farm bill in weeks.
He complimented the Senate for “good bipartisan work,” while wading into a squabble between the House and Senate over how to help farmers.
The Democratic-run Senate passed its farm bill in June. It includes funding for disaster aid this year. The Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a disaster bill that would cut conservation programs by $639 million, including $256 million to reduce the federal deficit. It allows up to $100,000 in aid per operator.
Cattle and sheep ranchers would get most of the assistance.
Crop insurance will provide a safety net for most row-crop growers but livestock producers have less of a federal cushion. Disaster programs aimed at them expired at the end of 2011.
Farmers could collect $15 billion-$18 billion in crop insurance indemnities this year, nearly double the 2011 pay-out, because of drought losses, say analysts. Insurers made money in recent years but “this will be the first major loss year” since enrollment zoomed and may prompt a shake-out in the industry, said two University of Illinois economists on Tuesday.
The House disaster bill and the Senate farm bill offer similar disaster programs for livestock.
“It’s unfortunate that Senate Democrats have blocked this relief package from getting to those in need,” Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said in a statement.
The current farm law expires on September 30 but many of its provisions, including crop supports and food stamps for the poor can run for a while. Farm lobbyists see a low chance of Congress resolving differences in bills before the post-election “lame duck” session.
Last update: August 8, 2012 at 11:52 am by By Ashish Khanal
USGS
Fiji
Aug 08 10:57 AM
5.8
Strong earthquake in the greater Fiji area
234 km (146 miles) N (353°) from SUVA, Fiji
73 km from Yangganga, Vanua Levu
104 km from Yasawa
A person from Ba, Fiji reported a very weak shaking. We do not expect any problems with this earthquake although the islands closest to the epicenter have felt a strong shaking.
According to USGS the max. shaking was light shaking experienced by 78000 people. This estimate countradicts with people reporting a strong shaking at Vanua Levu island
Last update: August 8, 2012 at 11:52 am by By Ashish Khanal
Moderate earthquake in the greater Los Angeles area
A moderate shallow M4.4 earthquake (preliminary data) occurred at 11:23 PM California time. The epicenter is located at 2 km from Yorba Linda and 7 km from Placenta. 12 km from Orange.
We do not expect any serious damage or injuries based on this earthquake.
Max. moderate shaking has been expected by specialists (MMI V), which seldom generates damage (not even minor)
We expect however aftershocks which may seriously hamper the nights sleep.
Update : As expected by Earthquake-Report.com, the LAPD or Fire brigades have NOT received reports of damage or injuries so far.
The video below shows the shaking of some material at a Budweiser plant in Anaheim
Quick: Name a common food, consumed every day by most people, that:
• Increases overall calorie consumption by 400 calories per day
• Affects the human brain in much the same way as morphine
• Has a greater impact on blood sugar levels than a candy bar
• Is consumed at the rate of 133 pounds per person per year
• Has been associated with increased Type 1 Diabetes
• Increases both insulin resistance and leptin resistance, conditions that lead to obesity
• Is the only common food with its own mortality rate
If you guessed sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, you’re on the right track, but, no, that’s not the correct answer.
The true culprit: Triticum aestivum, or modern wheat.
Note that I said “modern” wheat, because I would argue that what we are being sold today in the form of whole grain bread, raisin bagels, blueberry muffins, pizza, ciabatta, bruschetta, and so on is not the same grain our grandparents grew up on. It’s not even close.
Modern wheat is the altered offspring of thousands of genetic manipulations, crude and sometimes bizarre techniques that pre-date the age of genetic modification. The result: a high-yield, 2-foot tall “semi-dwarf” plant that no more resembles the wheat consumed by our ancestors than a chimpanzee (which shares 99% of the same genes that we do) resembles a human. I trust that you can tell the difference that 1% makes.
The obvious outward differences are accompanied by biochemical differences. The gluten proteins in modern wheat, for instance, differ from the gluten proteins found in wheat as recently as 1960. This likely explains why the incidence of celiac disease, the devastating intestinal condition caused by gluten, has quadrupled in the past 40 years. Furthermore, a whole range of inflammatory diseases, from rheumatoid arthritis to inflammatory bowel disease, are also on the rise. Humans haven’t changed — but the wheat we consume has changed considerably.
Wheat Bellies
You’ve heard of “beer bellies,” the protuberant, sagging abdomen of someone who drinks beer to excess. That distinctive look is often attributed to alcohol consumption when in fact it’s just as likely to be caused by the pretzels — not just the beer — you’re downing after work. A wheat belly is a protuberant, sagging abdomen that develops when you overindulge in wheat products like crackers, breads, waffles, pancakes, breakfast cereals and pasta. Dimpled or smooth, hairy or hairless, tense or flaccid, wheat bellies come in as many shapes, colors, and sizes as there are humans. But millions of Americans have a wheat belly, and the underlying metabolic reasons for having one are all the same. Wheat contains a type of sugar called amylopectin A that raises blood sugar in an extravagant fashion. Eating just two slices of whole wheat bread, can raise blood sugar more than two tablespoons of pure sugar. This leads to the accumulation of visceral fat on the body, the deep fat encircling organs that is a hotbed of inflammatory activity. Inflammation, in turn, leads to hypertension, heart disease, cancer, and other conditions.
Wheat-consuming people are fatter than those who don’t eat wheat. Why? Among the changes introduced into this plant is a re-engineered form of the gliadin protein unique to wheat. Gliadin has been increased in quantity and changed in structure, such that it serves as a powerful appetite stimulant. When you eat wheat, you want more wheat and in fact want more of everything else — to the tune of 400 more calories per day. That’s the equivalent of 41.7 pounds per year, an overwhelming potential weight gain that accumulates inexorably despite people’s efforts to exercise longer and curtail other foods — all the while blaming themselves for their lack of discipline and watching the scale climb higher and higher, and their bellies growing bigger and bigger.
All of which leads me to conclude that over-enthusiastic wheat consumption is not only one cause of obesity in this country, it is the leading cause of the obesity and diabetes crisis in the United States. It’s a big part of the reason that reality shows like the Biggest Loser are never at a loss for contestants. It explains why modern athletes, like baseball players and golfers, are fatter than ever. Blame wheat when you are being crushed in your 2 x 2 airline seat by the 280-pound man occupying the seat next to yours.
Sure, sugary soft drinks and sedentary lifestyles add to the problem. But for the great majority of health conscious people who don’t indulge in these obvious poor choices, the principal trigger for weight gain is wheat.
And wheat consumption is about more than just weight. There are also components of modern wheat that lead to diabetes, heart disease, neurologic impairment — including dementia and incontinence — and myriad skin conditions that range from acne to gangrene — all buried in that innocent-looking bagel you had for breakfast.
Despite the potential downside of a diet so laden with wheat products, we continually bombarded with messages to eat more of this grain. The Department of Health and Human Services and the USDA, for instance, through their Dietary Guidelines for Americans, advocate a diet dominated by grains (the widest part of the Food Pyramid, the largest portion of the Food Plate). The American Dietetic Association, American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, along with the Grain Foods Foundation, the Whole Grains Council, and assorted other agriculture and food industry trade groups all agree: Everyone should eat more healthy whole grains. This includes our children, who are being told to do such things as replace fast food with grains. These agencies were originally sidetracked by the “cut your fat and cholesterol” movement, which led to a wholesale embrace of all things carbohydrate, but especially “healthy whole grains.” Unwittingly, they were advising increased consumption of this two-foot tall creation of the geneticists, high-yield semi-dwarf wheat.
This message to eat more “healthy whole grains” has, I believe, crippled Americans, triggering a helpless cycle of satiety and hunger, stimulating appetite by 400 calories per day and substantially contributing to the epidemic of obesity and diabetes. And, oh yes, adding to the double-digit-per-year revenue growth of the diabetes drug industry, not to mention increased revenues for drugs for hypertension, cholesterol, and arthritis.
It is therefore my contention that eliminating all wheat from the diet is a good idea not just for people with gluten sensitivity; it’s a smart decision for everybody. I have experience in my heart disease prevention practice, as well as my online program for heart disease prevention and reversal, with several thousand people who have done just that and the results are nothing short of astounding. Weight loss of 30, 50, even 70 pounds or more within the first six months; reversal of diabetes and pre-diabetic conditions; relief from edema, sinus congestion, and asthma; disappearance of acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome symptoms; increased energy, happier mood, better sleep. People feel better, look better, eat fewer calories, feel less hungry, are able to discontinue use of many medications — just by eliminating one food from their diet — ironically a food that they’ve been told to eat more of.
It is imperative that we break our reliance on wheat. It will require nothing less than an overthrow of conventional nutritional dogma. There will be battles fought to preserve the status quo; the wheat industry and its supporters will scream, yell, and claw to maintain their position, much as the tobacco industry and its lobbyists fought to maintain their hold on consumers.
If the health benefits of a wheat-free diet sound hard to believe, why not conduct your own little experiment and see for yourself: simply eliminate all things made of wheat for four weeks — no bread, bagels, pizza, pretzels, rolls, donuts, breakfast cereals, pancakes, waffles, pasta, noodles, or processed foods containing wheat (and do be careful to read labels, as food manufacturers love to slip a little wheat gliadin into your food every chance they get to stimulate your appetite). That’s a lot to cut out, true, but there’s still plenty of real, nutrient-dense foods like vegetables, fruit, nuts, cheese and dairy products, meat, fish, soy foods, legumes, oils like olive oil, avocados, even dark chocolate that you can eat in their place. If after that 4-week period you discover new mental clarity, better sleep, relief from joint pain, happier intestines, and a looser waistband, you will have your answer.
Hoarders’ Brain Scans Reveal Why They Never De-Clutter
| Posted: 08/06/2012
By Katherine Harmon
Jill, a 60-year-old woman in Milwaukee, has overcome extreme poverty. So, now that she has enough money to put food in the fridge, she fills it. She also fills her freezer, her cupboard and every other corner of her home. “I use duct tape to close the freezer door sometimes when I’ve got too many things in there,” she told A&E’s Hoarders. Film footage of her kitchen shows a cat scrambling over a rotten grapefruit; her counters—and most surfaces in her home—seemed to be covered with several inches of clutter and spoiled food. “I was horrified,” her younger sister said after visiting Jill. And the landlord threatened eviction because the living conditions became unsafe.
Jill joins many others who have been outed on reality TV as a “hoarder.” We might have once called people with these tendencies “collectors” or “eccentrics.” But in recent years, psychiatrists had suggested they have a specific type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). A movement is underfoot, however, for the new edition of the psychiatric field’s diagnostic bible (the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5), to move hoarding disorder to its own class of illness. And findings from a new brain scan study, published online August 6 in Archives of General Psychiatry, support this new categorization.
Hoarding disorder is categorized as “the excessive acquisition of and inability to discard objects, resulting in debilitating clutter,” wrote the researchers behind the new study, led by Yale University School of Medicine’s David Tolin.
Many of us might feel our homes or workspaces are far more cluttered than we would like—or than might be good for our peace of mind. But those with diagnosed hoarding disorder usually have taken this behavior to a different level. The Mayo Clinic even has a guide for treatment and prevention of hoarding disorder. One recommendation they provide: “Try to keep up personal hygiene and bathing. If you have possessions piled in your tub or shower, resolve to move them so that you can bathe.”
Some people hoard particular types of things, such as newspapers, craft supplies or clothing. Others, with a condition known as Diogenes syndrome, keep trash, including old containers, rotting food or human waste. Finally, as Animal Planet’s Animal Hoarders has shown, many hoarders collect more pets than they can appropriately care for, risking both their own and their animals’ health and safety.
To find out more about how the brains of hoarders might actually differ from those of healthy adults—and potentially even those with OCD—Tolin and his colleagues recruited 43 adults with a diagnosed hoarding disorder, 31 with OCD and 33 healthy adult controls to undergo fMRI brain scans. Each subject was asked to bring in a stack of miscellaneous, unsorted papers from their home, such as newspaper and junk mail. A similar collection of paper items from the experimenters was intermingled. Fifty items belonging to the subject and 50 items belonging to the experimenter were scanned and projected into the subject’s field of view in the fMRI. Subjects were asked to choose whether they wanted to keep a displayed item (either belonging to the subject or to the experimenters) or get rid of it by pressing a button. Afterward (and in a shorter pre-experiment training session), all of the discarded items were shredded right in front of them—ensuring that they knew that their decisions would have a real and immediate consequence.
Healthy controls chose to discard a mean of about 40 of the 50 items they brought. Those with OCD discarded about 37 items. But those with a hoarding disorder discarded only about 29 of the 50 things they brought. It also took hoarders slightly longer than healthy controls (2.8 seconds compared with 2.3 seconds) to make their decision about what to do with the items. And they reported substantially more anxiety, indecisiveness and sadness than healthy controls or those with OCD while making decisions.
Those with hoarding disorder showed key differences in the fMRI readings in both the anterior cingulate cortex, associated with detecting mistakes during uncertain conditions, and the mid- to anterior insula, linked to risk assessment, importance of stimuli and emotional decisions.
Interestingly, hoarders showed lower brain activity in these regions when they were deciding about other people’s items. But when they were faced with their own items, these areas of the brain showed much higher rates of signaling than those in either people with OCD or the healthy controls. Those with hoarding disorder also reported “greater anxiety, indecisiveness and sadness” during the decision-making process than those with OCD or the healthy controls.
As Tolin and his co-authors noted, hoarders are not necessarily eager to keep everything they possess, but rather “the disorder is characterized by a marked avoidance of decision-making about possessions.” And the extra activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and insula while evaluating what to do with their own items “may hamper the decision-making process by leading to a greater sense of outcome uncertainty,” the researchers noted. In other words, hoarders might often feel that they are at risk of making a wrong decision—and that that decision could bring with it greater risk than it actually would. “The slower decision-making may be a central feature of impaired decision making in hoarding,” the researchers noted.
The frequent theme on hoarder reality shows is that the individual does not realize that their lifestyle has spiraled out of control. Bernie, a 59-year-old Illinois woman featured on TLC’s Truth Be Told: I’m a Hoarder said, “I don’t consider myself to be a hoarder—not at all,” even after showing the film crew an entirely full house and a pool table room piled nearly to the ceiling with toys and other collected items—and after her daughter and son had implored her to clean up her house. As the authors of the new paper note, those with the disorder “are frequently characterized by poor insight about the severity of their condition, leading to resistance of attempts by others to intervene.” And as the Mayo Clinic notes, even if hoarders’ collections are disassembled, they often begin acquiring more items right away because their underlying condition has not been addressed.
As with for patients with OCD, those with hoarding disorder have had some success reducing negative symptoms by taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy are also frequently employed to help patients overcome the disorder. Although neither of these approaches is a sure-fire way to cure hoarding, the biggest hurdle to recovery still seems to be recognizing the problem. And as the Mayo Clinic recommends, “getting treatment at the first sign of a problem may help prevent hoarding from becoming severe.”
SUN SERPENT: Amateur astronomers arpund the world are monitoring a gigantic filament of magnetism on the sun. If one end of the filament were on Earth, the other end would reach all the way to the Moon. The dimensions of the structure make it an easy target for amateur solar telescopes. Richard Fleet sends this picture from his backyard observatory in Wiltshire, England:
This filament is filled with billions of tons of plasma, yet it has remained suspended above the surface of the sun for days. Such a massive structure, buffeted as it is by winds and currents in the sun’s atmosphere, is unlikely to remain stable much longer. If the filament collapses, it could crash into the surface of the sun and spark a powerful type of explosion called a Hyder flare.
‘Sight’: Short Film Takes Google Glasses To Their Logical Nightmarish End (VIDEO)
The Huffington Post | By Hallie Sekoff Posted: 08/03/2012 5:04 pm Updated: 08/03/2012
In ‘Sight,’ a haunting new short by Eran May-Raz and Daniel Lazo, we catch glimpse of a world seemingly not unlike our own. Created as a grad project for Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, the film depicts a future where people have retinal implants that digitize the world before them. Suddenly everything is in “app” form, from cutting vegetables to picking an outfit for a date–people are coached through their activities and awarded points for the tasks they accomplish correctly. Without giving anything away, as the film progresses the more twisted and distorted this new reality becomes.
The Four-Fold Way™ Program is an educational experience that demonstrates how to “walk the mystical path with practical feet.” It is designed to increase our respect for nature and each other, and enhance our ability to work cooperatively and creatively in teams. The program inspires “spirit in action” using the cross-cultural components of leadership and communication skills, creative problem-solving, health care, and education. The Four-Fold Way™ Program emphasizes four major principles that integrate ancient cultural wisdoms into contemporary life.
The Way of the Warrior or Leaderis to show up, or choose to be present.
Being present allows us to access the human resources of power, presence, and communication. We express the way of the Leader through appropriate action, good timing, and clear communication. Components of leadership include:
Four universal taboos and values
Six universal aspects of success
The Way of the Healer or Caretaker is to pay attention to what has heart and meaning.
Paying attention opens us to the human resources of love, gratitude, acknowledgment, and validation. We express the way of the Healer through our attitudes and actions that maintain personal health and support the welfare of our environment. Components of healing include:
Four universal addictions
Eight universals sustaining health and well-being
The Way of the Visionary or Creative Problem Solver is to tell the truth without blame or judgment.
Truthfulness, authenticity, and integrity are keys to developing our vision and intuition. We express the way of the Visionary through personal creativity, goals, plans, and our ability to bring our life dreams and visions into the world. Components of vision include:
International formula for negotiation and conflict resolution
Six steps to creative problem-solving
The Way of the Teacher or Counselor is to be open to outcome, not attached to outcome.
Openness and non-attachment help us recover the human resources of wisdom and objectivity. We express the way of the Teacher through our constructive communication and informational skills. Components of wisdom include:
Six ways to access our own guidance and wisdom
Seven essential skills for working with any group
Optimum health is expressed in most cultures as a balance in all four areas: Leading, Healing, Visioning, and Teaching. Cross-culturally these four areas reflect the four human resources of Power, Love, Vision, and Wisdom. Most of us tend to over-express one area, while leaving the others underdeveloped. It is important to understand that these four ways are universal and available to all humankind, regardless of context, culture, structure, and practice. The Four-Fold Way™ Program is structured to develop all four areas with equal emphasis to support optimum health, both individually and collectively, in our family, workplace, and communities.
The Four-Fold Way™ Program was researched, created, and synthesized by cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien, Ph.D. The program is designed to fit a variety of formats, which accommodate time and location needs. It is currently being used in medical, academic, and corporate environments.
for more, go to: http://www.angelesarrien.com/index.php/four-fold-way/
